Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28)

Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath

 

Mark 2:23-28

 

There is the novel The Prince and the Pauper written by Mark Twain, the famous American novelist. In the story, Edward was born as a royal prince and his birth was a great joy to every people in the kingdom, but Tom was born in a poor family who did not want his birth. The two, who were born on the same day, looked exactly the same, and if they were in the same clothes they were hardly distinguishable from each other. Out of his curiosity about the world outside the palace, Prince Edward borrowed Tom’s rags and slipped away of his royal court. As nobody recognized him as the prince, however, he experienced all kinds of difficulties and finally came back to the palace and ascended the throne left by the late king. on the other hand, Tom, in the prince’s uniform, lived as the prince in the palace and learned court manners, which were totally different from the world outside. At the end, he became the king’s subject and lived a happy life in the palace. This novel is quite similar to the story of “Jesus and me.” That is, Jesus, the Heavenly Prince, came down to earth in “the ragged flesh” in order to be with me, and he suffered many toils and pains. For me who am dirty with sins, the Lord prepared a white robe of righteousness. In this robe, I enter the court of God’s house, stand before the Lord, and eat and drink together at His table.

 

One sunny day in autumn, Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grainfields. The young disciples, who were always hungry even just after a big meal, picked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and put the grains into their mouths. Deuteronomy 23:25 in the Old Testament says: “If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.” This is a law that God gave to his people Israel. God’s law is full of thoughtful and heart-warming instructions. While respecting the farmer’s hard works for growing the crops, it is also generous and merciful to poor neighbors. But a few Pharisees, seeing Jesus’ disciples picking heads of grain, complained to Jesus against the disciples’ behavior. “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” What they made an issue of was based on God’s commandment “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy ……On it you shall not do any work……” (Exodus 20:8-11). The Pharisees applied this law very strictly and meticulously. And when any of the regulations were violated, they brandished the sword of condemnation ruthlessly regardless of how poor or hungry the person was. They did so not because they loved “God’s law,” but because they did not have “God’s love” in them.

 

In response to the Pharisees’ accusation, Jesus defended his disciples using the story of King David. According to 1Samuel 21, it was when David was being chased after by King Saul who hated David out of his jealousy. one day, David, starved almost to death, went to priest Abiathar in Nob and asked him to give something to eat. As he did not have any food to give, Abiathar gave the consecrated bread, which was allowed only to the priests, namely, Aaron’s descendents (Leviticus 24:9), to David and his friends who were in desperate need of food. With telling the story of David, Jesus added as follows. “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” And he also said, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

 

On hearing Jesus’ word, the Jews in those days might doubt their ears. For them, keeping the Sabbath holy was more important than even their lives. In order to keep the day “holy,” they made a large number of regulations. Most of the regulations were about things prohibited on the Sabbath. For example, the Jews were not allowed to write or delete two or more letters, and they should not turn on or off the light during the Sabbath. Due to these extremely complex and complicated rules, Jewish people had to give up “a normal life” and spend the day as if they were dead. However, Jesus said that man is more important than the Sabbath, and the day was established only for man. This word of Jesus was quite “revolutionary.” Many of the Jews regarded Jesus’ idea as dangerous. Reading the Gospels carefully, we can see that it was not just over the Sabbath that collision took place between Jesus and the Jews. Jesus received and made friends with “sinners” like tax collectors and Gentiles, and in contrast, he rebuked the “pious” Pharisees and the teachers of the law who sincerely observed fasting, prayer times, and tithe offerings, calling them hypocrites. It is of course good to forgive and love sinners, but it seems that Jesus ignores “law” and encourages “sin.” In fact, this is quite a difficult problem even today for us Christians who follow Jesus.

 

When we read Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, we can find two series of critical concepts running in parallel. They are as follows:

Disobedience – Sin – Death – Law

Obedience – Righteousness – Life – Holy Spirit

 

The concepts in the first line explain the trail of life experienced by the first man Adam and all his descendents. That is, they commit sins by disobeying God, and are destined to die as the wage of sins, and live a life of slavery under the law. In contrast, the concepts in the second line describe the life of second Adam Jesus and all his followers. They reach righteousness through obedience to God, and the righteousness brings life to them, and now they live as a freeman or as the son of God in the Holy Spirit, not under the law. With this contrast, we can see that the life of believers is totally different from that of non-believers. There is nothing in common between the two lives, and therefore, there should not be any confusion or conflict. Nevertheless, there is still a problem, and the problem is in the “law.” It is because the law is something good, and therefore many Christians do not give up “law.” Instead of walking the road of “Obedience – Righteousness – Life – Holy Spirit”, they insist on the road of “Obedience – Righteousness – Life – Law”. That is, they live by law, not by the Holy Spirit, and try to attain righteousness and life though keeping the law. However, this is an impossible road, and actually there is not such a “way.” Its only consequence is returning to the life of “Disobedience – Sin – Death – Law”.

 

1Corinthians 15:55 says: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” According to this word, surprisingly, the law is not “the power of righteousness” but “the power of sin.” The law has power not in making people righteous but in turning them into sinners. This is also the case in today’s story in which the Pharisees condemned Jesus’ disciples with the law of the Sabbath. They branded the disciples as “unlawful” using the “good law.” In fact, this is Satan’s work. In the Bible, Satan’s another name is “Accuser” (Revelation 12:10). Relying on the law, the power of sin, Satan stands before God and accuses His children day and night. When we are exposed to such a work of Satan, it is very difficult for us to ignore the law. Then, we leave the life obeying the Holy Spirit, and go back to the life keeping the law. We become a slave again, take up the burden of slavery, and live in fear as in the past.

 

When we suffer from this conflict, there is a stubborn question harassing us ceaselessly. “Then is it all right for us not to keep the law?” This question expresses “our desperate struggle to get out of sins.” In order to answer this question, first, we need to know who we are in Jesus. We are already “righteous.” We are already free from sins. We already put off the beggar’s rags, and put on the prince’s dress. We often think that the change of “the inner heart” is a true change, and only with this, “the outer form” can also be changed. However, the change in a Christian’s life does not happen in that way. Rather, it happens in the opposite way. First, our “outer garment” is changed. The dirty rags of sinner are removed, and “the white robe of righteous given by Jesus is put on. Then, in this new dress, we live as the king’s prince or princess in the royal palace. Of course, our inner heart is still stained with beggar-like spirits. Therefore, many times, we are perplexed with ourselves, finding our unacceptable inner nature. Nevertheless, we should not take of “the robe of righteousness.” Then, as a matter of course, our inner heart is changed gradually. That is, we come to have “a noble and majestic inner character” fit for our outer garment dressed up by Jesus our Lord.

 

What on earth is the nature of “law” we are trying to keep in this world? In fact, it is not useful at all for us to be “children of God.” Tom in the novel “The Prince and the Pauper” was a beggar. According to the novel, the city of London, in which Tom lived, had a strict regulation on begging. Even if Top keeps the regulation perfectly, he cannot become a prince. At best, he can be a “good beggar.” In Colossians 2, such laws are called “written codes” and “about eating and drinking.” Such laws are only for good looking, and useless for holy life. Keeping such laws is like wearing dirty lags (Isaiah 64:6). In God’s eyes, the rags are only too dirty to look at. This is how the laws in the world are. We cannot be God’s children by keeping the laws. only when we become God’s children by grace, we dwell in his palace and learn the lofty court manners.

 

Jesus says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Colossians 2 reveals the secret of how we can grow into God’s holy children. It is “to be connected to Jesus who is the Head.” And this is one of the important works done by the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit maintains connection between me and Jesus the Head in one, and makes me grow into his body. Then, naturally, we become like Jesus. The Jews respected and sanctified the law. However, they separated the law from God the Head. They drove God out of his throne, and Satan sat on the seat of the King. As a result, the law became cold, lifeless, and merciless, even killing lives. Now Jesus came in order to get back His throne as the Head. When he is our Lord and our Head, he himself becomes the law of life. He himself teaches us and guides us through the way of righteousness. The road is unimaginably high, noble, glorious, and beautiful.

 

The Jews kept “the visible law” of the Sabbath in their flesh, but Jesus’ disciples kept “the invisible law,” which is being connected to Jesus the Head in the Holy Spirit. “The visible law” may produce good looking, but cannot do anything other than that. In contrast, “the invisible law,” though not interested in good looking, gives us true life and allows us to enjoy all kinds of treasures in heaven. Therefore, we should live by faith. We should believe that Jesus took away our sins and declared our righteousness. We should believe that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit and we now live by the Spirit. We should believe that we have become God’s prince and princess dwelling in his place, and that we live there forever and ever. When we stay in the grace by faith, “God’s law” is fully fulfilled among us. I pray that each of us endure the fight of faith for remaining in Jesus the Head.